As expected HTC has officially launched the HTC Droid DNA smartphone at an event in New York. The new Droid DNA is pretty much a carbon copy of the earlier released HTC J Butterfly for the Japanese market.

The rear 8-megapixel snapper features LED flash, 1080p video recording capability and comes with all the tech goodies seen on the previously released flagship One X smartphone. The rest of the specs include a front 2-megapixel camera, WiFi, LTE, NFC, 802.11abgn dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, Beats Audio, 16GB of internal storage, but there is microSD card slot.

The new Droid DNA runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS flavored by HTC's own Sense 4+ UI, same combination seen on the HTC One X+. The new smartphone also features wireless charging and has a 2020mAh battery.

Unfortunately, the new Droid DNA is currently exclusive to the USA and Verizon and there was no word on an international version. Verizon priced it at US $199 with a two-year contract and pre-orders start as of today.